An Afghan asylum seeker has been jailed for 15 years for abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl in an attack that sparked protests and claims of a police cover‑up over his immigration status. Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, was convicted at Warwick Crown Court of rape, two counts of sexual assault, child abduction and taking an indecent video of his victim during the assault in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
Jurors heard that Mulakhil arrived in the UK on a small boat just four months before the attack and had lodged an immigration claim linked to problems he said he faced in Afghanistan. They were not told he was an asylum seeker during the trial, a detail that later fuelled anger locally when it emerged alongside criticisms that police had downplayed the immigration backgrounds of those arrested.
The 10‑day trial was told Mulakhil first approached the girl as she played on swings in a park, telling her she was “very small” and asking for her phone number, a conversation captured on a doorbell camera. He then led her to a grassy area beside garages at the end of a cul‑de‑sac, threatened to kill her family and repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted her, recording indecent images during the ordeal.
In a video statement played to the court, the girl said she told him: “I don’t like you. I’m young. I’m a kid,” and described him laughing as he stripped her and attacked her. She said she repeatedly asked him to get off but he ignored her pleas. Prosecutors said Mulakhil spent around 80 minutes alone with the child in the cul‑de‑sac.
Afterwards, CCTV showed him buying Red Bull with the girl at a convenience store before she found a chance to escape, running off and later being found distressed and alone in another park by an adult who knew her and called police. Forensic evidence linked Mulakhil to the assault, with his DNA recovered from the girl’s neck and inside her shorts.
Mulakhil claimed in police interview that he believed the girl was 19 and that she had initiated what he said was his first sexual encounter, later repeating to jurors that he accepted her age when she told him she was 19 on camera. Prosecutor Daniel Oscroft called this an “obvious lie”, arguing it would have been clear to anyone that she was a very young, vulnerable child.
He had already admitted a separate rape charge before the trial began. A co‑defendant, fellow Afghan asylum seeker Mohammad Kabir, was tried alongside him but acquitted of intentional strangulation, attempted child abduction and committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence, after insisting he never touched the girl or had any sexual intention towards her.
Sentencing, Judge Kristina Montgomery KC said the victim had only just turned 12 and that the jury’s verdict left no doubt Mulakhil knew she was under 16. She said he deliberately led her to a secluded residential cul‑de‑sac out of public view and subjected her to sustained abuse, describing the girl as “particularly vulnerable” and suffering “significant and ongoing psychological harm”. Mulakhil must serve 15 years in prison followed by an additional 12 months on licence.
The court was told he left Afghanistan at 22 after coming under Taliban attention, leaving behind his parents, two brothers and three sisters, and had hoped to study economics at university. It later emerged that investigators were able to trace him using the Home Office payment card issued in his name, part of a support scheme for asylum seekers awaiting decisions and used to buy basic goods.
News of the case prompted outrage in Nuneaton, where anti‑immigration protests were held and demonstrators accused authorities of hiding the defendant’s status to avoid inflaming tensions. Protesters gathered outside Warwick Crown Court ahead of sentencing with banners reading “Stop the invasion, end immigration”.
The Home Office has since confirmed that Mulakhil has been served with deportation papers. Following his conviction, the department said it would not allow foreign criminals or irregular migrants to exploit UK laws and pointed to plans to reform human rights and appeals processes to speed up removals and make it easier to deport offenders.